Shining beacon of teenage angst, Black Flag remains one of the finest examples of pure punk rock. Thudding heavy metal riffs, rapid fire percussion and urban assault lyrics served up by the honorable Henry Rollins, created the vehicle for aggression. Say what you want about them, there's no way you can say they ever went soft.
Black Flag was the brainchild of Greg Ginn, a gawky, soft-spoken Californian with a rare, useful combination of musical talent and business sense -- while he was leading and playing guitar in Black Flag, he also became the force behind SST Records, which sustained Southern Californian hard-core for years. Their early output was distinguished by the band's unrelenting attack and Ginn's guitar playing, which interspersed rapid block-chording with strangled riffs, making English punk leads of the time sound rather studied. Lyrics were predominantly teen angst rants about being wasted, or a maniac, or having no values, etc -- so extremely grim that they verge on a sort of black comedy.
By 1981, the band, by now favorites of the burgeoning hard-core scene, sought a replacement vocalist, as Cadena became their full-time rhythm guitarist. They chose ice-cream store manager and long-time fan Henry Rollins, who debuted on the almost painfully earnest Damaged. The Rollins era output was prolific by any standards: buoyed by a national network of fans, gigs, Ginn's label, and a gung ho full-time frontman, there were nearly two dozen Black Flag records issued in five years. By this stage, Rollins was also sharing song writing credits ("My War"), while the band backed his poetry readings ("Family Man"). Rollins' aggression was well balanced by his intelligence, which helped old and new material immeasurably; early classics like "Room 13" and "Police Story" gained force and clarity, while goofy new tunes like "TV Party" and "Thirsty And Miserable," which might have sunk into mush with the group's previous front men, kicked the proverbial ass.